Darkstalkers 3, titled in Japan as Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire (ヴァンパイア セイヴァー,Banpaia Seivā?), is the second sequel in the Darkstalkers series of fighting games by Capcom, originally released for arcade play in 1997. The game was originally planned to be released as Darkstalkers: Jedah's Damnation in the United States, but the title was not used, making Vampire Savior the only game in the series to retain its original title overseas.

Contents

Gameplay

The game retains the character roster of Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, omitting Donovan, Huitzil and Pyron from the lineup. Taking their place were four new characters: Jedah, Lilith Aensland, Q-Bee and B. B. Hood. It also features a secret character/mode, Shadow, where the player assumes the identity of the defeated character for the next fight (e.g. if Morrigan is defeated, the next fight the player will play as Morrigan).

Vampire Savior eschews the traditional round-based system in favour of what is dubbed the "Damage Gauge System", where battles take place during a period of one round, with each fighter having two "life markers" (equivalent to two life bars) by default, which diminish after one character runs out of vitality. The player can also regain a portion of their life during battle if they manage to avoid taking further hits. The game also introduces the "Dark Force System" which allows players to perform special abilities unique to each character for a limited period.

Plot

Jedah, one of the high nobles of Makai, is resurrected after a premature death long ago. Seeing the state of the demon world, he decides that the only way to save the world is to recreate it. To this end, he conjures a dimension known as Majigen, to which he summons worthy souls to feed his new world. As luck would have it, those souls belong to the characters from the first two games, in addition to three newcomers.

Release

Updates

Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers' Revenge (ヴァンパイア ハンター2,Vanpaia Hantā 2?)[1] and Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire (ヴァンパイア セイヴァー2,Vanpaia Seivā 2?)[2] are two simultaneously released updated versions of Vampire Savior that were released exclusively in Japan only a few months after the release of the original Vampire Savior.

Along with minor tweaks and changes to the characters' move lists, and the combo system (removal of air chains) the main difference between the two upgrades and the original Vampire Savior are in its character roster. Vampire Hunter 2 features the same character roster and soundtrack as Night Warriors (which was known as Vampire Hunter in Japan), omitting the characters introduced in Vampire Savior, while Vampire Savior 2 features the Vampire Savior cast along with Donovan, Huitzil and Pyron, omitting Jon Talbain (as well as Dark Talbain), Rikuo and Sasquatch. Both versions feature Oboro Bishamon and Shadow as secret characters, as well as Marionette, with which the fights consist of "mirror matches" (e.g. Morrigan vs Morrigan, Demitri vs Demitri).

Home versions

A Sega Saturn version was released in Japan only in 1998, which required Capcom's 4MB RAM cartridge. This version contains all 15 characters from the original Vampire Savior as well as the three Night Warriors characters who were left out of the original arcade release and brought back in Vampire Savior 2/Vampire Hunter 2. Thanks to the 4MB RAM cartridge, this version more faithfully reproduces the 2D-animation fluidity of the arcade than either of the earlier console releases. However, while Shadow is available in the Saturn version, Marionette is not.

Also in 1998, an update of the game was ported for the PlayStation as Vampire Savior: EX Edition in Japan and Darkstalkers 3 in North America. Although it is an EX version to the third canon game in the series, it is actually a compilation of Vampire Savior and its two Japan-only arcade updates. This version allows players to use all 18 characters and the two "hidden characters" (Shadow and Marionette) in all three games. It also features Oboro Bishamon and Dark Talbain as playable characters.[3]

The game was included in Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection, a compilation of all five Darkstalkers arcade games that were released in Japan only for the PlayStation 2 in 2005.

In 2012, the Entertainment Software Rating Board administered a Teen rating for Darkstalkers 3 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.[4] The game was released through PlayStation Network on April 24, 2012.[5]

It was also included in a remastered form as part of the HD remix game Darkstalkers Resurrection for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. Unlike the previous release for this game on the PSN which used the PS1 version, the remastered edition is based off the original arcade release, so only the original 15 playable characters are available.

Related media

Several different licensed tie-ins were released for the game in Japan:

Reception

The game was met with a positive critical reception. In 2012, Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar included it among the little-known classic fighting games that deserve HD remakes, stating that "the game’s crisp spritework is a marvel to behold – especially in the backgrounds, which convey the kind of creepy atmosphere that compliments the supernatural fighters perfectly."[11] In 2013, Eurogamer's Matt Edwards noted that "playing it today is akin to playing Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - not because these games are mechanically similar, but because Capcom tends to go the full distance with the second sequel."[12]